The Two-Way

12:31 pm

Thu August 29, 2013

Federal Prosecutors Told Not To Focus On Marijuana Users

A customer rolls a joint made of half marijuana and half tobacco to smoke inside of Frankie Sports Bar and Grill in Olympia, Wash., in December 2012.

Nick AdamsReuters/Landov

Federal prosecutors are being told by Attorney General Eric Holder to focus on cartels, criminal enterprises and those who sell the drug to children, not on casual marijuana users, a Justice Department official tells NPR's Carrie Johnson.

Holder today informed the governors of Washington and Colorado — two states that recently legalized the sale of marijuana for personal use — about the new guidelines for prosecutors, the official adds.

Bu the new guidelines will apply to all states, not just Washington, Colorado and those where "medical marijuana" is legal.

"Based on assurances that those states will impose an appropriately strict regulatory system, the Department has informed the governors of both states that it is deferring its right to challenge their legalization laws at this time," Justice said in a statement.

"Our oversight on this issue was intended to provide movement on this policy question," Leahy said in a statement. "All the more in a time when federal resources are especially scarce, the Justice Department should focus on countering and prosecuting violent crime, while respecting the will of the states whose people have voted to legalize small amounts of marijuana for personal and medical use."

Update at 1:58 p.m. ET. The Memo:

The Justice Department has posted its memo to U.S. Attorneys (pdf). In it, the department lays out what it is concerned about. Among other things, it is prioritizing preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors, preventing the transfer of pot to states where it's not legal and preventing pot from being used as a "cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity."